Dan VanderKooi

Dan VK has been following the Michigan Craft Beer scene since before Oberon has been available in 6-packs. Besides making the rounds at all the local craft breweries and beer bars, Dan also supports the local music scene, reads crime fiction, and enjoys playing volleyball with his wife and friends.

Tin Can Bar has pretty simple concept: “Cans are King!” - Don’t expect to find your favorite beer on draft or in bottle here because you won’t find it. All the Tin Can Bar features are cans, and lots of them. The concept has proven successful in Lansing with 3 different locations and now Tin Can has opened a 4th location on Grandville Ave SW in downtown Grand Rapids across from the Intersection concert venue and just down the road from Founders Taproom. I recently paid a visit to see what Tin Can Bar has to offer.

Gravity Taphouse Grille is a new bar and restaurant located right of the Beltline exit of I-96 in Grand Rapids. The diverse beer menu features over 70 different drafts of a wide range of styles including local breweries as well as world-class beer from all over. The building which was formerly home to a Pizzeria Uno and most recently Malarky’s Sports Bar has been extensively remodeled with a high-tech feel and the addition of a new beer garden. Gravity Taphouse Grille is the latest in a series of projects brought together by the RedWater restaurant group which is also home to such other establishments as Reds on the River in Rockford, and FireRock grille in Caledonia.

The day is Sunday, it’s not even noon but yet a line has already started to form outside the brewery. Many people have traveled from afar seeking one beer, a beer of legends, but this is not Founders or KBS - this is not even West Michigan. Today we are visiting another great beer State: the State of California and we are in Sonoma County. The town is Santa Rosa, the brewery Russian River and the beer is Pliny the Elder, the excellent and highly sought after double IPA which often competes along with KBS and a few other select beers as one of the top-ranked beers in the world.

Fork Fest brought over 40 different local food vendors to the Romence Garden & Greenhouses on Lakeside Dr. in northeast Grand Rapids for an evening of food, beverage, and fun. Admission include unlimited helpings to food samples ranging from small portions to whole plate-fulls while drink tickets for purchase provided attendees with a selection of beer from Brewery Vivant which included the seasonal Pumpkin Tart, hard ciders from Vander Mill such as Totally Roasted with cinnamon roasted pecans, and Fenn Valley wine.

The Cranker’s transformation from Coney Island diners to full scale restaurant/breweries is now complete with the installation of bar and brew system at the Mount Pleasant location, the third and final of the three Cranker’s locations to receive the upgrades. Big Rapids was the first location for transformation with full bottling and production facilities also serving as headquarters providing the lion’s share of the beer for the Cutlerville and Mount Pleasant pubs. Lead brewmaster Adam Mills lends his award-winning recipes and oversees big batch brews at Cranker’s HQ as well as very limited small batch releases for the auxiliary pubs.

2014 marked the 7th year of the International Wine, Beer, and Food Festival with beer having just gained prominence in the festival over the last couple of years. Last year introduced the brewer’s loft on the 3rd level of the DeVos Place with long lines at the escalator to gain admittance and this year that trend continued with attendees seeking to try the over 200 beers available at this year’s fest. Some of the highlights for me this year include the draft selections from Cranker’s and the Bourbon Barrel Aged Shipwreck Porter from Arcadia. This year also featured another bonus: draft beer selections on the main level as well with Pike 51 Brewing and Jaden James (Peanut Butter Porter!) sharing joint booths with their respective Hudsonville and Cascade wineries.

Rockford Brewing Company unveiled 7 new beers and brought back 2 favorites for their 3rd Annual Pub Crawl, a now pre-Thanksgiving night tradition in downtown Rockford. This year’s crawl featured the debut of two new locations: Ramona’s Table located in a renovated 100+ year old building on Squires Street Square and Uccello’s taking the place of Sam’s Joint which had closed before last year’s pub crawl. Marinades which shares a bar with Grill One Eleven, also served as an additional stop this year and Grill One Eleven was featuring their own nano-brewed Oatmeal Stout on tap along with Rockford and other craft beer offerings.

Opening their doors at 9 AM, Odd Side Ales has been encouraging patrons to wear the PJs and bring their breakfast on Black Friday, treating them to bottle and draft release of their popular coffee-infused Morningwood Stout for the last several years. For 2014, not only has Odd Side Ales introduced another new bottle/draft release, the Hipster Brunch coffee maple bacon stout, but in addition the emerging lakeshore brewery scene has some new players. Muskegon’s Unruly and Pigeon Hill Brewing Co.’s each introduced their own barrel-aged bottle releases and offered up their own Black Friday themed breakfast and beer celebrations, the occasion representing the first bottled beer brewed in Muskegon since 1957.

Trail Point Brewing Co. has announced plans to open as the first brewery in Allendale, MI. The lease had been signed for a prime location at 6034 Lake Michigan Drive next to Sam’s Tacos on the corner of 60th Avenue. The name “trail point” reflects the history of Allendale and Lake Michigan Drive as a key historic route leading from the Grand River in the heart of Grand Rapids leading west to the shore of Lake Michigan. As far as the brewing community goes, Trail Point should serve as a key spot on the brew map serving as a gateway location between Beer City proper and the emerging Lakeshore brewery scene.